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The Origin of Murphy's Law
LauraW writes "HotAIR, the web site of the Annals of Improbable Research , is publishing a fascinating series on the Origin of Murphy's Law. It turns out there really was a Murphy, and the story of his law involves rocket sleds, Chuck Yeager, and Edwards Air Force Base. The article covers all these topics and more, and includes interviews with Yeager, the son of Murphy (really), and several surviving members of the project that inspired the law."
is also known as Sod's law in the UK
Anyone who has read through the original "Murphy's Law" books, published in the late 70s / early 80s, should remember that this was well documented in the prefaces. This is hardly new information. Come to think of it, it's not really "science" either, as suggested by the category.
Mirror here.
According to this page, sod's law was the original name for "if anything can go wrong it will" and has been around for much longer than "Murphy's Law". The 'sod' simply refers to an arbitrary unfortunate individual..
It was more a recognition that user interfaces should be designed to be used correctly. It was possible to do the fastenings both a right and a wrong way. At least the technician was consistent.
Mild form of abuse, suggesting the sod is cruel or heartless, milder than "bastard".
According to the h2g2 swearing page...
The famous and probably apocryphal epitaph says, 'Under this sod, lies another'. Sod means turf, but here is an abbreviation for 'Sodomite'.
With a 2 sec google search:
Murphy's Law
If I remember correctly, there is even a picture of the guy in question, and some pretty funny story to in the "Origin of Murphy's Law" section...
I'd rather be sailing...
I have become the world's leading expert on Murphy's Law. No really, I'm serious. You doubtless have heard the Law: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. To some it is a profound statement of philosophy, a reminder that life can be defined just as much by its inherent challenges as anything else. To others however the Law is a pessimistic comment that underscores, albeit in more elegant terms, that shit happens.
Whatever you might think about Murphy's Law, one thing is certain: it is as ubiquitous an expression as there is in American English. Over the years it has been cited in thousands of articles, websites and news reports, been the subject of several books, appeared as the title of at least one bad Charles Bronson movie and a TV show, and inspired about a dozen zillion corollary Laws. Just about every time something goes wrong somewhere, the Law gets its two cents in. Fortunately my expertise owes very little to actual adversity -- I'm not writing this from a hospital bed -- and almost everything to research. Historical research. Which is to say I have become the expert on the origins of Murphy's Law. This happened by accident...and if I'd known what the consequences would be of sticking my nose into it -- how I'd draw the wrath of Chuck Yeager, get caught in the middle of a nasty 20-year feud, and nearly wind up in a hospital bed -- I probably wouldn't have bothered.
The Road to Murphy's Law
This all began a few months ago, after I showed an article I'd written for an aviation history magazine to my neighbor. The article concerned some goings on at Edwards, the famed Air Force flight test facility, in the 1950's. "You know," my neighbor said, "You'd probably be real interested in talking to my father, David Hill Sr. He worked at Edwards, on a bunch of rocket sled tests in the 1940's. In fact," he continued proudly, "he knew Murphy."
"Murphy?" I inquired, searching my memory for a test pilot of the same name. Yeager, Crossfield, Armstrong... It didn't ring a bell.
"You know, Murphy," he went on. "The guy who invented Murphy's Law."
I didn't say it, but I was absolutely skeptical. Who wouldn't be? One might as well claim to be friends with Kilroy, know the identity of Deepthroat, or the whereabouts of Amelia Earhart. The notion seemed outright laughable. Your father knew Murphy? Sure he did! If Murphy wasn't some imaginary Irish folk hero, then he was probably a gentle sage who drank a lot of Guinness and lived back in the 1700's. Needless to say I let the subject slide.
But a day or two later, I almost tripped over a slender book called Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong that had been left on my doorstep. The book cited Murphy's Law and then listed literally hundreds of amusing corollaries. The extremely brief forward to the volume included a letter written by an engineer named George Nichols. And this is where things got interesting. Nichols said he'd worked on a series of rocket sled tests at Edwards in the 1940's with a Colonel John Paul Stapp and that Murphy's Law emerged from these tests.
"The Law's namesake," Nichols wrote, "was Capt. Ed Murphy Jr., a development engineer... Frustrated with a strap transducer which was malfunctioning due to an error in wiring the strain gauge bridges caused him to remark -- 'if there is any way to do it wrong, he will' -- referring to the technician who had wired the bridges. I assigned Murphy's Law to the statement and the associated variations..."
That appeared straightforward enough, and piqued my interest. I subsequently did some research and I discovered to my surprise that the story of the origin of Murphy's Law was not something generally agreed upon. Accounts in fact varied wildly. Some sources gave the credit solely to Ed Murphy Jr., a man they praised for his wisdom, insight, and panache, but said almost nothing about. In other places, Nichols' letter appeared -- often word for word -- explaining how he had come up with "the statement." And at least a few writers suggested that Co
According to FOLDOC, Murphy's Law is:
If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.
The FOLDOC entry (from the Hacker's Lexicon I believe) also mentions the rocket sled thing....
Do you mind, your karma has just run over my dogma.
Murphy's law
alt.binaries.erotica.hamster.ducktape
If you post it on your web site, it's available even if you don't directly link to it.
Part 4 early for your viewing pleasure.
SD
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
The article indicates (from one account, mind you) that murphy kicked out a shorter version - "If anything can go wrong, he'll do it." or possibly "If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will." Both of them have the same spirit as the foldoc entry, but are referring to a single individual, not making a general statement about life.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
... you just have to follow a simple pattern:v 9i5/murphy/murphy4.html
http://www.improb.com/airchives/paperair/volume9/
Enjoy!
Also known as Hanlon's Razor.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
FYI ide HD's and standard floppy drives always (at least in my experience) have the #1 pin on the same side as the power connector YMMV
-*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE